1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to avoiding deadlock when printing over a network and, more specifically, a method for checking client connection status over a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the growing presence of computer users connected to a network, there has been an increasing need to provide network-printing solutions to these users. Many of the solutions available require a remote server to manage the network-printing functions such as rendering print data and printing itself. Because of this, the need arises for communication means allowing the remote server to communicate with the client device and the client user.
To handle this problem, companies such as Microsoft™ have introduced asynchronous user interfaces into their operating systems. These interfaces allow printer drivers on remote servers to send message boxes to a user's session at a client device over the network. Messages can include notifications and custom message boxes prompting users for information needed at the remote server. Although this provides a solution for communication, problems with this approach arise when the remote server requires input from the client device user for printing.
In these situations, client users may connect to the remote printer through the remote server under different credentials than those used for their current session at the client device. This causes messages sent from the printer driver to the client device to be lost because the print driver sends messages based on the identification information used by the client user to connect to the remote printer. Since the credentials are different from their session on the network, the messages never reach the users at the client computers. The non-delivery of messages halts printing because the server cannot send requests for necessary user information. This results in stoppage of the printer queue sequence and printing at the remote printer all together.